You may recall a reference to Dog the Bounty Hunter in one of my other posts.  I felt it would be useful giving you the background as to why Dog is relevant when it comes to blind dates and safety in general.

I watch a fair bit of telly, and it always annoys me that when someone is held against their will or something terrible is about to happen, and they have a window of opportunity with someone who could help, they don’t try and get a distress message, albeit a hidden one, out.*

One day I happened to be chatting to my Mum and my sister about this very thing, as you do, and how would we let someone know something was wrong without anyone else cottoning on.  I suggested saying something seemingly completely random like, “Oh, you asked for a reminder to record that Michael Buerk programme.”  I bet you’re thinking, “Pineapple Dance Studios?  Really?” but don’t forget Michael Buerk used to present Rescue 999. Geddit?  To me, this was perfect, but I had a couple of concerns; 1) it might be too obvious I was getting a distress message out (I may be giving more credit than is due to the viewing figures of Rescue 999) and 2) perhaps it was on the obscure side.  So we went for , “Don’t forget to record that William Shatner programme.”  He did the USA’s equivalent of Rescue 999 in Rescue 911.  We decided to do a trial run.

Raw : “Hi Mum, you said to call when I was home safe, and here I am.  Home.”

Mum : “Glad to hear it love.”

Raw : “Before I go, you asked me to remind you to record that William Shatner programme.”

Mum : “Do you mean Star Trek?”

It was clear we needed to work on reference points, and it just so happened that evening, Dog the Bounty Hunter was on telly.  We felt this was the perfect code to use for sending a hidden distress signal, and it’s stuck ever since.  Now I’ve shared it with you, I may need to work on a new one (a friend did suggest saying the word ‘help,’ but that is a little too obvious) just in case there are any wannabe criminal masterminds reading this on their downtime.

* = yes, I should probably stop watching programmes like 24 and Spooks

Thanks to Daily TV Online for the photo.